Like so many, my
experience of salvation was the beginning of life—not the end.

Sometimes we see before us
a great precipice. As we approach that rock bottom experience—the absolute pit
of despair—we come not to the end of life, but truly to the beginning of it.

God reframes life from the
perspective of eternity.

We have invested all of
our energy and all of our identity in this one life that we knew. When that
life came to a close we perhaps began to understand there was more to life than
what we knew. When that knowledge entered our heads and penetrated into our
hearts, we began to see life completely anew.

We suddenly discovered
that the surrendered life is the only true life; the abundant life where the
seen worldly concern withers and fades in comparison to the unseen realities
that are backed in God’s truth.

When we arrived at this
place—that brand-new beginning—we sensed that we had been taken there for a
reason. God purposed the low time would not be an end in itself, but, on the
basis of our attitude to draw near to him, he would revive us, and give us
something we never dared imagine.

As we experience this
life, this new energy, this new worldview, this newly settled nature, we become
instinctive regarding our reactions to all things in life. Our responses are
measured by calm poise, as we seek to discern what the Spirit is saying for us
to do.

When my life is no longer
my own, I, for the first time, truly begin to understand God.

God has brought me here
for a reason. God has withdrawn everything I have loved in order that he may be
seen for who he is—a redemptive God who will give me eternity for a question.

The old life was a
question.

We always lived in the
question. We always endured uncertainty.

Now with God there is a
paradox of uncertainty. We live in accepting unparalleled uncertainty and we
are never happier because certainty is no longer our yardstick or goal. We have
been delivered of such fear, because to need to know certainty is a want of
being God. Instead, we allow God to be God and we take a position of truly
relying and trusting.

Such is freedom!

***

The beauty of life that is
no longer our own is we don’t need to have the answers. It is such a comfort to
know we are nothing without God, but in God we are everything. And we can do
all things through him who strengthens us, if we would abide by his will and
surrender. There and then we taste freedom—in that God-space of reliance and
trust.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

THESE TWO don’t always
present at the same time; they’re not necessarily linked. But very often they
are. As depression and anxiety tend to feed off each other, so too do burnout
and depression.

Though it is arguable
whether this age is any busier than any previous age, the one thing we can know
is there are orders of complexity in this world that there has never been in
any previous era. Sure, we are the same broken vessels to choose many unwise
ways, and that has always been the case, but now we have this exponential
factor of chaos plunged into the depths of our lives by sheer Western influence
at the outer fringes of postmodernism. Enter the technological age where
gadgets are designed to make our lives easier, but only ever end up supporting
the opposite effect if they aren’t used wisely. Most people get it wrong most
of the time.

The technological age is
just one factor. There are many more sociological factors too intricate to deal
with here. But we can see what is patently apparent—burnout and depression are
on the rise.

Sorting the Cause from the Effect

The great unfortunate
thing in this age, with many problems abounding, is we look for a fix regarding
the effect of our problems and don’t sufficiently interrogate the cause.

For a little bit more
effort, with a little more curiosity, by being a little more focused, we can
work on the cause and, thereby, obliterate the effect. The cause of our
problems is a lack of God. If we had God in adequate measure we would
prioritise life in such a way as to be able to diligently walk the ancient path
that God anoints for anyone to travel upon.

The ancient path of
abiding in God’s ways is effective for life in every era.

Certainly, in some ways,
we need belief beyond the entrapping fear of the burnout and depression double
blow; we need hope beyond the nemesis that each is.

When we re-sort our
priorities and implicate courage by creating change we smash burnout, yet we
may need rest beforehand to have the energy to do that. When we no longer cruel
ourselves for feeling depressed, and we deal with our thinking, going gentler
on ourselves, hearing God’s affirmation in the order of our obedience, we
negate depressed feelings.

One day at a time we can recover
past these two, but we will need to change. We will need all the courage we can
enlist, but none of that is beyond us. Let us seek God, the Healer.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

DREAMS are powerful
representations of our inner psychic worlds and they can communicate much to us
if we’re ready to listen.

One recent morning I woke
up, and, having not slept well previous nights, I found myself having dreamt
vividly. I dreamt that I had accepted minor parties I’m in relationship with
over the more major parties I truly care about. Sometimes, in trying to achieve
a balance, especially in competing relationships, we overstep our focus on one
party more than the other. I think this was the case for me, not that I wanted
to take any ‘side’. The party receiving less attention could have been expected
to feel a little rejected.

Having had my dream, I
enquired of God, what could this mean?

The Lord said to me, “Never forget your roots, Steve. Acceptance is an issue for you for a
reason: it’s because it’s an issue for everyone. Everyone must be loved.
Everyone must receive acceptance, for anything less given has hints of rejection
in it. Do you hear me?” he said.

Then I thought, acceptance
is about safety; that everyone would feel safe in our presence.

It’s probably safe to say
that acceptance and rejection are the two great powers within relational living.

We know that it is a
biblical prospect that everyone deserves acceptance. Indeed, we are commanded
to accept people; to forgive unreservedly, despite the difficulty in matters
like that.

Having dreamt a dream and
having made the connection I felt compelled to repent; to reach out to a few
people—some within my own family—to try and even the ledger. We can only try.
We can only discern what the Spirit is saying to us and then make amends
however we can. It’s all that God could expect us to do. And we need to accept
that at times we can’t make amends.

And we shrink and cringe
at the thought that someone might feel somewhat rejected because of how we
interacted with them. But in reality, we cannot demonstrate complete acceptance
and unconditional love without imperfections bearing their way over our love,
tarnishing its effect.

The power of acceptance
and rejection is a power making and breaking life. We all need to be loved and
feel we belong. It’s the most powerful force in all of life. God commands us to
accept everyone, as people—it’s not about what they do or don’t do. If God
loves them (and he does) so must we.

Many are somewhat made and
many are somewhat broken, just as many are made and many are broken. And it is
better put that we are all somewhat made and somewhat broken.

What we need to know, and
accept, is the power we have in our accepting people and our rejection of it.
As we show we accept people we love them, just as when we reject people we
disobey God.

Rejection of any one
person—at the level of their persons—requires repentance.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

“Dealing well with people’s
pain will promote a far deeper level of trust than a jocular journey with their
joy.”

— BRIAN HARRIS

We don’t often enough have
full licence to journey with our pain, especially in corporate settings. People
feel under pressure to present acceptably within the groups they belong to. It
usually takes some work to open up space for people to feel comfortable sharing
their pain, let alone allowing others into it.

But if ours is the role to
nurture relationship—to increase the value of our outcomes through rapport—then
we have a great deal to gain from opening up space where people can be real
with their pain in our presence and in community; if it’s safe enough.

Pain: the Ever Present Reality

Scratching the surface of
life, within the portents of the lives of those around us, we quickly see lives
in varying states of completeness, raggedness and dishevelment. In a group of ten
people we could say with some accurate effect that one or two will be dealing
with some significant issue. One or two may be truly battling. One or two
others will be stressed; a burden boils beneath them.

As we meet with people we
are best prepared to accept the person who arrives on the day. We generally
have no warning as to ‘who’ we will meet.

Most people, in the midst
of a bad day, or a season of grief, or in dealing with a significant
frustration, might present as masked whole people. But if we are perceptive we
may detect that not all is okay. Without being intrusive we can offer them
space. We can offer them the opportunity to trust us; an opportunity we will
not quickly want to betray.

It’s not as if we have to
look for pain. If we are a safe person to be with the pain will find us. We
will find ourselves as part of another person’s therapy. How wonderful, and
what a privilege it is, to play some part in the healing of another person.

***

In any group of people
there are always those who are battling pain. Much of the time it is liberating
for those bearing great burdens to be allowed safe space with which to
communicate in. What a blessing for them and a privilege for us that we might listen
without judgment and refrain from giving of unsolicited advice. Sometimes
expression is all that is needed. Let us be space openers, so that people can
leave us relieved in some way of their burdens.

Jesus said a similar thing
in Matthew 12:34: “for out of
the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” What we have stored within us eventually emits outwardly.

Now there are a few
dimensions to consider. Firstly, upon recognising we project our deepest selves
we must rationalise that people will attribute and judge our behaviour. We,
too, will attribute and judge ourselves, just as we attribute and judge what
others project of themselves onto their world. Secondly, there is the
opportunity to provide protection regarding these projections. As a minister I’ve
had to learn that innocent and naïve projections from others need to be
guarded; I have no right to abuse the power people give me, sometimes without
even their own knowledge. I have learned that the most responsible thing to do
when dealing with other people’s projections—views they have formed of the
world—is to gradually and sensitively return them to them, and best in ways
they can learn and, thus, become more empowered. This is called speaking the
truth in love.

***

We so often share more
than we would later feel comfortable.

It is, therefore, a
wonderful thing to share things, including the projections of our inner hearts,
within the realm of safety; in a place where the person we trust may have
power, but they choose to use that power responsibly, diligently, morally,
dignifying the other person.

We must learn to protect
people’s projections, not gossiping about them, nor judging them, or
criticising them. We have been allowed passage into another’s inner world. What
right do we have to trample their inner garden?

Especially for the minister,
or anyone in authority, there is the role of responsible power deployment. Power
has been vested in us; to play a role.
God requires we play the role responsibly, diligently, morally, dignifying the
other person.

More than this; we do
people a great service of love when we carry their projections, and contain
them, even linking them to a better point of liberation of soul.

***

When someone trusts us we
have a responsibility to honour their trust; to be responsible, diligent, moral,
dignifying them. What they say they believe from deep within them. It is
precious ground. When we traipse gently through the garden of the inner person
we get beautiful opportunities to journey with them toward healing and faith.
We must respect what we wish to protect.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

I love the words the Lord gives me through the battles I have
with my inner self. This one recently when I struggled with a certain person
who chose a different way to me, seemingly against me:

Make
it your resolve to be friends with everyone as far as it depends on you. People
make choices based on their experiences. Everyone can be understood when we
look at them from their viewpoint. Hurt is also easily understood. What hurts
one would hurt most. We have more in common than we think. Friendship is the
most valuable gift we can give anyone.

This, the wisdom of God,
was intended for me, in my situation of hurt; to reconcile that hurt to God in
order that the friendship I could
have with this person could be accomplished in Jesus’ name, in the Holy Spirit’s
power, by the authority of the Father.

This is a fine word in the
order of life.

I can say this, and it can
be true, due one thing: the spiritual
life is all about relationships.

When we comprehend that
life begins and has its middle and ends with the material of our relationships,
and we do everything we can to abide by this truth, life never gets better;
never ever.

Life is all about
friendship.

Friendship makes life go
well when there is little to complain about, but, perhaps more importantly,
friendship is the thing that pushes us to obey God in humility by repentance
when people have hurt us. People hurt us. We hurt them. None of us is insulated
from either reality. We bear the potential of hurt every single conscious
moment. It is up to us to fortify ourselves in order that we wouldn’t hurt or
be hurt.

Only God gives us the
power to love when we would prefer to hate.

Only the matter of grace
can help us; grace for ourselves in our hurt space to defy the humiliation of
returning to God and grace for the other to love them when our heart of hearts
determines they don’t deserve it. Grace helps when we are wrong, even though we
feel right.

Everyone deserves to be
loved, whether we see it or not.

***

Living the spiritual life
within the realm of wholeness requires us to deal with everybody as if they are a friend. Everyone has a reason for who
they are and what they’ve become. Rather than judge anyone we best love them as
simply and as properly as we can. Then we are both blessed. Then God is
glorified in our being and in their presence.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Unexpected things occur in
our lives all the time, but when something happens with drastic ramifications
we’re sure to be tempted out into the lake of disappointment, and to tend
toward the rapids of resentment that take us, bereft of peace, into a stagnant creek-land
of indignant anger.

Disappointment is founded upon
a nasty surprise, most often because our expectations received a jolt.

***

It’s
easy to see how we’re found without space,

When
all along we’ve expected plenty of grace,

But
the movement of life has its quirks and turns,

So the person who’s humble
simply picks up and learns.

***

It’s too easy to become
disappointed in life. It’s about as common a reaction to things that don’t go
well as we can imagine. And of course our expectations are behind our
disappointment, so the higher the expectation the more disappointed we will be
when things don’t go well.

Perhaps it is not an
answer for us to have low expectations, just more realistic ones. But it is
sometimes very difficult to discern what the right level of expectation is.

Additionally, we always
need to be ready for the time when being let down doesn’t exacerbate an already
frustrated mind. That is what most people struggle with; the accumulation
of disappointments.

If we flip the
disappointment on its head we find underneath an opportunity glowing where we
would least expect to find it.

Opportunities form out of
disappointments; but we have to be ready to think differently.

We have to be ready to see
the broader view, for one moment in time—the overbearing landscape of
disappointment—is far too wrong a ‘true picture’ (for it appears true) to be
relied upon.

Faith Fuels the Opportunity Because of
Underpinning Hope

Hope is a beautiful thing.
It helps us not to panic in these situations, for when we panic we lose
perspective when we need to gain it. Panicking takes us in the opposite
direction (into a nomad territory) to that which we need to travel in.

If we have sufficient
poise, borne on a sound hope, we don’t panic and we have actually expressed the
simplicity of faith. Faith is a very simple thing; an abundantly simple thing.

When faith is the thing we
practice, our vision is transformed and opportunities abound. Then we enrol ourselves
upon discernment again, so we can choose the opportunity that best serves our
need.

***

When we’re enveloped by
disappointment, because our expectations haven’t been met, our vision for hope
vanishes and good opportunities fly out the door. But when we calm our
disappointment in hope—helped by more grounded expectations—we don’t panic and
faith is the ensuing expression. Through faith we see more opportunities out of
the disappointment, and better than expected things may usually result.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

“Self-leadership. Nobody—I
mean nobody—can do this work for us. Every leader has to do this work alone,
and it isn’t easy. In fact, because it’s such tough work most leaders avoid it.
We would rather try to inspire or control the behaviour of others than face the
rigorous work of self-reflection and inner growth.”

— BILL HYBELS

Where is the flow of our
lives headed? Toward growth or retreating into stagnation? We are doing one or
the other through every infinitesimal stage of our lives.

Nothing of what we do in
our existence is truly passive.

***

Having been asked which
people gave him the most trouble, D.L. Moody, the 19th Century evangelist and
minister, said, “I’ve had more trouble
with D.L. Moody than any person alive.” That speaks volumes for the
problems we all have with our very own selves when we are being honest. Not
that we dislike ourselves, but deep-rooted problems emerge from the ‘ours truly’
more often than from any other single person we know. And despite how much we
would like to change ourselves, we are limited in the power of change, unless
we give God permission to change us by his grace.

The facts revealed upon
self-reflection bear themselves on us when we are honest, and everyone seeking
to grow has the same opportunity. For one moment there is the scary thought—“Who
am I?”—yet it’s quickly replaced with—“Okay... all is good, again.”

Asking the Bigger Questions

None of us are comfortable
asking the tough questions of ourselves; ever. But we can get to a position
where we can instinctually surrender in doing it by knowing it’s inherently
good for us to do.

In many ways, in getting
to a position where we can routinely carry the weight of self-exposure we
gather strength against what seems an indomitable fear. If anything is going to
make us fearful it’s us about ourselves. We don’t want to be vulnerable because
it means there is both an unknown attached and a cost—both are undesirable. But
when self-exposure no longer concerns us we are able to be vulnerable in a sensible
sort of way.

When we have no fear for
what God might reveal through us when we are vulnerable, we live with a humble
boldness that aligns without fear to the truth. We welcome whatever God’s will
is. Our agendas are stripped away and our lack of orchestration of the events
of our lives is testament to our faith—we are being rewarded.

***

Good self-leadership is
the fundamental cornerstone of the effective leadership of people. The best
fathers, mothers, bosses, and authority-figures are deeply relational, firstly
with themselves, holding to a high self-account. This is the toughest work—to be
honest with ourselves. But it’s also the most rewarding of all work, because we
work on ourselves with God’s undeniable help.

It’s a rather naïve question, the one posed by
the title. Most Christians can tell you that it is brokenness and the sinful
nature that creates circumstances where people hurt, get hurt, and stay hurt.

Wherever there is a relationship that
experiences intimacy that relationship will almost certainly suffer the strains
of hurt; and it will need to overcome conflict in order to survive and thrive.
Yet at any point, notwithstanding the previous conflicts negotiated, that relationship
can be split asunder.

The potential for hurt is graphic; it’s an
ever present threat.

The only way we can insulate ourselves against
such hurt is in the fullest of journeys with God. Only when God becomes the
most important thing do all other things pale into insignificance, among them
the idea of being or staying hurt.

This is perhaps why so many so-called
Christians hurt or get hurt, despite the grace they should otherwise experience
that would fortify the experience of being hurt and would prevent the
propagation of hurt onto others.

We have to wonder when a Christian person is
hurt and why is it so? We are, again, being naïve if we think the Christian is
beyond getting hurt or beyond hurting others, or that forgiveness becomes easy
or easier. So much we find Christians are no different than non-Christians when
they get into that hurt space.

But then again there is great power in grace
and all Christians should, in theory, be able to access such power; but it
requires surrender—that we would no longer be the centre of the universe, but
God would take that place.

Where there are hurts and those hurts remain,
without redress, we can wonder where God is. Does the Spirit depart or shrivel
or become quenched? The longer hurts are allowed to fester without such redress
the more apathy of care is noted on the hurt side of things and the less of a
chance there is of reconciliation.

The person hurt is likely to be farthest from
God, but isn’t it up to the person closest to God to entreat the weaker one
with compassion?

It grieves God so much that his people would
willingly war with each other. It’s a reprehensible situation of the direst
means. Yet that is life as we know it; as we’ve always known it; as we’ll
always know it.

Human beings taking control in life, despite
God. That’s what must be behind it.

***

Why so much hurt, O Lord our God? Could God be
saying, “It’s because I am not at the centre of their existence.” We also need
to observe that it is our human way to stray from God’s ancient path. It
resounds, therefore, that where there is hurt anywhere repentance should be the
response everywhere. But that is expecting too much. If we would do God’s will
more we would (all) repent more.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

We each possibly believe in the process of
reconciliation of emotional interests, until, that is, we’re confounded by
either the repeated rejection of our attempts to reconcile or the hurts become
too entrenched to any longer go there. Both situations are lamentable as much
as they are understandable.

We can begin to disbelieve the possibility of
healing. We can doubt God’s power to resurrect situations that have long since
been marooned on the sandbars of resentment and exhaustion.

But if God is able to resurrect the Lord
Jesus, God is able to resurrect anything.

Indeed, living the resurrection reality—to
live saved on belief of Christ—is the very matter of living a miracle. We
should not doubt, but we are bound to.

We doubt because we impute the power of
humanity—to lose our relational way—onto the God of both heaven and ordered
creation. We don’t intentionally limit God, but we see scant evidence of our
Sovereign creating miracles of the reconciliatory kind.

We see too much hurt and we begin to believe
in the power of hurt, not the power of God.

Having Faith in the Passage and
Prevalence of God’s Will

“Let God’s will prevail,” may be the inner cry
of our souls.

That’s fine, but we need to also make it
practical and get involved—to bring heaven to earth, in cooperation with the
Lord’s Prayer, “On earth as it is in
heaven.”

Having faith in the passage and prevalence of
God’s will is actually about engaging in it. We need to add the traction of definitive
action; to pray and pray and pray about getting opportunities of interaction of
love and compassion that will show to people that reconciliation requires only
a will of obedience on our parts.

Having faith in the passage and prevalence of
God’s will is about putting all else aside in order that conflict would be
placed in the vice of safety, so that anything that is awry could be
challenged, but without any repercussions for any party. We can only do this
via the anointing of God. We could not go near this type of work in our own
strength.

Having faith in the passage and prevalence of
God’s will means we will stop at nothing to bring the reality of heaven—harmony
in all relationships—to earth. It’s amazing what simply holding on to faith in
a miracle can do.

***

If God is able to resurrect the Lord Jesus,
God is able to resurrect anything. Believing in forgiveness and healing is
consistent with living the resurrection reality. God can raise anything. God
can heal anything. Who are we to limit the power of God? No, God will do the
impossible if we add to it our faith to cooperate with his will.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

“Every person has their secret
sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a person cold [or
bad] when really they’re only sad.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 – 1901)

This is something I think everyone should not
only know, but also incorporate into their operational psyche in such ways as
to totally reframe their treatment of all people they meet and interact with;
particularly those people who seem bent on hurting us as individuals. It
explains so many things and augments our compassion toward the hurtful, whilst
helping us to feel less fearful and less safe around them.

Those who seem convicted in their badness—the
ones who bend us out of shape in their anger, violence and aggression—may be so
riddled by the bullets of penetrated sadness they can only react by badness. Is
this an excuse for them? Yes and no. It simply helps us to understand.

It helps to understand why things are the way
they are.

When we understand this, we understand that
people’s natures are more the same than they are different. ‘Bad’ people behave
badly for real and understandable reasons and this truth should bear itself on
our consciousness and our consciences more.

Those who feel they cannot love others
probably have much more uncontainable and inner sadness than they can safely
deal with. Their graphic inner sadness manifests in an outer badness. We get
fearful in situations where we feel unsafe and we cannot think that the
aggressor is even more vulnerable within themselves than we are.

Forgiveness Borne on Compassion

When finally we understand that people are
always products of the culture around them we finally begin to understand the
notions of advantage and disadvantage.

We are neither better than others nor worse.
We are products of the culture and our environment we were brought up in. If we
have very little badness in us, it’s probably true we have very little sadness
in us. We were well cared for.

In the same way, the hurt person is not able
to not feel hurt. They react badly because it’s all they expect and it’s all
they know. And it may be all very unconscious for them. They’ve yet to submit
themselves for healing.

Whatever it is, we, the compassionate, should strive
to forgive their trespasses against us, because of our empathy for their
situation: less family support now and more damage done then.

***

What underlies the badness in our world is
sadness—unreconciled and angry about the injustices endured. The only response
that works is compassion, through and through. Compassion helps us be less
fearful in unsafe situations, it diffuses conflict, and it is the mood of
forgiveness, which is both a gift to them and us.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

We may struggle accepting
the friends our partners pick; those who for reasons we know or don’t know
grate upon us or drive us up the wall. We have no idea the affinity our
partners have with these people as they wouldn’t be our choice for friends at
all.

Sure, you can’t choose
your family (most of the time) but surely a better choice of friends is in the
offing. That’s perhaps our thinking; a mode of thinking fraught with danger.

The trouble with this
thinking, no matter how appropriate it may seem, is it’s going to create
resistance in our partners and then resentment, not to mention the conflict
that always unsettles otherwise good things. The trouble with unresolved
resentments is how they continue to rear up like cobras of the past to sting us
on the neck of the present-found future.

Respecting our partner’s
friendships is one way we respect our partners. And respecting them is loving
them.

Respecting Relationship Boundaries

Respecting our partner’s
friendships is also about respecting important boundaries within the
relationship. If their friends are really that bad for them we may ask why are
we in this relationship to begin with?

Rare it is that one
partner will implement another partner’s advice regarding friendships they have,
and not feel deeply resentful in years to come.

For many of us there is a
great deal of work and prayer involved in coming to a place of accepting our
partner’s friends. The best result is not only the freeing up of relational
space that the friendship might blossom, but that we might eventually engage in
some way with the friend ourselves.

We can afford to be honest
and in fact most people will respect the fact that we’re open about how hard it
is to provide this freedom. It still needs to be done tactfully; wisely.

When we respect a
relationship boundary we’re inviting our partners to reciprocate; that they
might respect us in a way that’s important. It’s important that this is not an expectation, but simply a hope—a wish
based on a good investment.

***

Allowing and accepting our
partners’ friendships is about respecting relationship boundaries. We don’t
have to be involved with them, but we do need to allow our partners their space
to nurture same-gender peer relationships. We would want that space for
ourselves. Such respect as this is a very practical sort of love.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

FINANCIAL PROBLEMS and pressure from a
realtor, concern over a lack of work, and a recent suicide in the family; this
guy had it all—all of the wrong sort of things happening in his life and in his
family’s life.

His was a brave face, and, though he chose to
have fun with his friends instead of wallow in it, he was ever brave enough to
share. It’s not as if he couldn’t share; just like on Palm Sunday, if there was
no praise for the coming Saviour in the streets the stones would have cried out

The hope we need through our pain, struggles
and torment comes via the diffusion of our carrying that terrible load. We must
pass it off; we cannot bear such a load without buckling at the knees.

It’s good, then, that pain forces us to seek
God.

But if we deny it, God won’t be upset. A
foolish decision (we’ve all made them) helps us to know that none of us have
all of life.

Now this sharing or diffusion of the
horrendous load—the concerns, anxieties and tremors—is not a miraculous healing
in its own right. Best we not expect too much. But the miracle occurs steadily
over time. As we connect more and more, more and more does that horrible
foretaste of despair begin to make its way into the background of our psyche.

Cooperating with God

God hasn’t been the one to have placed us in
our lamentable situation, but the Lord does cry out into it. He wants us saved
and has power that is mighty to save, but we must cooperate and do his will.

This is not done by trying harder. It’s done
by surrendering to his will. Surrendering is easier than we think. It always
looks hard initially. But it is, in fact, easy from the standpoint of looking
back.

Cooperating with God needs to become our
habit; how we more or less operate.

When we do this there is a blessing
associated; we are helped and we don’t feel so alone.

Now how we surrender in these ways is we share
our burdens. We let go of them, and release them into the arms of a responsible
and caring person—one who will hold us through it all; one that won’t give up
on us. Seek that person. Also seek that in the Person of God—who never gives
up.

***

Sharing our burdens is a key to emotional and
psychological recovery. We find someone we can trust and share with openness
and courage. The healing happens not overnight—not entirely—but the habit of sharing when we need to is
blessed, because we cooperate with God by surrendering the struggles we cannot
contain.